


Go Left (The Transferable Skills Remix)

by livrelibre



Category: Undercovers
Genre: Character of Color, F/M, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-02
Updated: 2011-05-02
Packaged: 2017-10-18 21:47:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/193641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livrelibre/pseuds/livrelibre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five skills from the CIA that transfer to catering and event planning</p>
            </blockquote>





	Go Left (The Transferable Skills Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [boosette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/boosette/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Go Left Until You See An Ocean](https://archiveofourown.org/works/171642) by Anonymous. 



> Unbetaed; concrit welcome. Dialogue and inspiration from boosette's Go Left Until You See An Ocean.

The humid mid-July air hits them like a slap as they step out of the building, like nature itself is trying to remind them they have left one environment for another entirely.

"So what're we going to do, now that we've retired?" Sam’s palms are clammy with more than the damp mid-atlantic heat. It’s kind of adorable; between them, Steven’s betting they have enough skills to take down a small nation-state with little trouble, but it’s retirement that inspires panic. But then, it’s not like they can put their actual resumes on Monster.com without triggering a UN’s worth of red flags.

"We could become chefs,” he says, half-kidding. “Explore the exciting world of organic vegetables and aged meats! Abuse our contacts to acquire quasi-legal cheeses."

"I like cooking," Sam says speculatively, taking him absolutely seriously. He loves that about her. Like the suggestion to quit the CIA, she takes his every harebrained scheme and makes it something possible, something real.

And so begins their transition from Mr. & Mrs. Smith into B. Smith. Little do they know exactly how many of the skills they learned as agents would be applicable to the catering business.

 **Lie Detection**

You'd think he would have gotten used to being lied to as a spy, but it was somehow more of an affront as a caterer. After all, he knew there was no honor among thieves but when your butcher tried to pass off clearly below-grade beef as top shelf without even trying to hide it, it was all the more galling over something so petty. Before lies had been life or death, and the stakes were clear and bloody. Now the steak might be bloody, but it didn't need to be all that high or worth so much blather for so little. But when the little lies got to him and he chafed at the bigger lie that covered his past, he looked at Sam and thought, well a little white lie or two was cheap for the price.

 **Lock picking**

Sam hadn't had a chance to get too rusty at lock picking. There were the times when they got locked out of the banquet hall and no one was around to open and the dinner absolutely had to be on the table in four hours. There were the times when one or the other of them left the keys to the office somewhere, each swearing the other had been supposed to pick them up. There was the time Sam just had to check on Lizzie since she was supposed to be at work and no one had seen her for a day or two and Sam had to make sure she hadn't choked on her own vomit (good times). And then there was the more subtle art of jimmying information out of Steven. Not anything that went against their agreement, just little things--like casually asking him if he could read the German labels on the sauerkraut cans and reveling in the perfection of his accent. Or going on vacation in the Caymans and watching him snorkel like a pro. Or even just discovering that, given a choice, he would always get something chocolate-flavored for dessert. Every tumbler of new knowledge that snicked into place and opened up another closed door into the man she loved came with a thrill of almost sexual triumph, a little snick of “there he is.”

 **Knifework**

Knife fighting and cutting as a caterer had certain similarities even if one was usually much more bloody than the other (sometimes). They both required skill built up over time and long practice. They both benefited from the best tools, perfectly balanced and of good steel, well-weighted. In both of them you could cut without even feeling it and find blood leaking soundlessly the next second. In both of them, you could get out a fair amount of aggression. But at the end of one you had blood and the absence of life (not yours if you were good enough as well as lucky) and at the end of the other you had a good meal that would help you live another day. Though he was good at both, Steven knew which one he preferred.

 **Sexpionage**

Catering doesn't require her to take it all off, but there is a certain come on to the food business, a sensual pleasure and seduction of the palette. There's the presentation, lovely to the eye, appealing, a distracting slight-of-hand that makes the diner ignore that lasagne only had one layer of meat. There's the flirt of the amuse-bouche, the slow seduction of the appetizers and soups, the full on vamp of the entree and the sweet afterglow of dessert. The whole thing is pure sex. And best of all, it's her work out there and not her body and she gets to go home and do the real thing with the man she loves.

 **Teamwork and planning**

Sam and Steve shouldn't have worried too much about getting back into the game. In the kitchen they danced around each other, knowing exactly where the other was, communicating with a half sentence and a raise of the brow. They planned out banquets for hundreds like military campaigns, no detail left to chance and everything in place and rolled with the punches when anything went awry (which it always did). They built up a business, a home and a life. After, what they had been through, trained and dealt with by themselves, it should have been the easiest thing in the world. But learning to do it together, that was the hard part and the best reward of all.


End file.
